


in roaring, rise

by Addison R (beyond_belief)



Category: Kraken - China Mieville
Genre: Body Modification, M/M, Mpreg, Octopi & Squid, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:41:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21733144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beyond_belief/pseuds/Addison%20R
Summary: The world resets, Dane doesn't die, andArchiteuthisnever exists.
Relationships: Billy Harrow/Dane Parnell
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	in roaring, rise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [track_04](https://archiveofourown.org/users/track_04/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, track_04!

Billy came to consciousness with a woozy, underwater feeling. He registered first the soft lamplight, then the warmth of the bed he was in, and finally the low sounds Dane was making as he laid next to Billy, his head resting on Billy's sternum. Dane was crooning; not truly words as Billy could make out, but something sweet and soothing nonetheless. 

Billy put his hand on Dane's head and stroked slow fingers over what remained of his ear. The bumps and ridges of the scar tissue were no longer a bother to either of them. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying the prayers." Dane moved his face against Billy's palm, first nuzzling against it, then pressing a kiss to where Billy's fingers joined up to the rest of his hand. 

Not for the first time, Billy wondered what that felt like, to be the last of a congregation. The last of a religion. It wasn't something he'd ever had reason to contemplate before that other version of himself had met Dane and the Krakenists. He wasn't entirely sure this Dane had any memory at all of worshiping _Architeuthis_ , the never-existed giant squid. For this Dane, the church of the _Mesonychoteuthis_ had always been just that, and it was the colossal squid's bite that gave his congregation the strength to fight against Grisamentum's return. 

The world without the giant squid had run close to the one with it, up to a point, and in that divergence was where Billy and Dane both knew they resided. 

He felt Dane's hand splay widely over his stomach and rest there. It seemed heavy. "What are you doing?"

"Praying," Dane said again.

Billy felt like he was missing a large part of whatever was transpiring right now, or maybe more like there was something else Dane wanted him to ask. If there were, he knew Dane wouldn't say it outright. "Are you praying for something specific?" he asked quietly.

"Yes." 

"Can I ask what?"

"I asked Kraken to heal me."

The changes wrought by the kraken-bite had been slowly fading as the weeks passed. His eyes had returned to normal, as had his teeth. The ink-and-Grisamentum stains on the inside of his mouth had faded completely, minus the teardrop-shaped spot on his lower lip. The trembling that had plagued him for days after stopping Grisamentum's return had ceased, except for the rare and momentary tremor. During those moments, he sometimes fainted. Billy would not let him leave the flat.

His left hand still rolled and unrolled into a squid's six arms and two tentacles on occasion. It was in this form now, curled alongside Billy's thigh. Billy felt the soft touch against his skin, but he was used to the difference now, and the limbs were just another part of Dane as far as he was concerned. 

"But you are healing," he said.

Dane turned his face against Billy's chest and kissed the center spot just below his ribs. Then he moved in an upward motion, sliding one leg over Billy's hips, his human hand up over Billy's shoulder. Billy looked up at him. "What is it?"

"There's still squid in me," Dane said. The arms and tentacles brushed Billy's face. 

"I can see that."

One tentacle curled over his lip, so Billy opened his mouth and let it explore. The faint taste was briny. The tiny suckers fluttered over his tongue, which made him shiver. After a moment, it withdrew, and Billy rolled his tongue around in his mouth for a second before he said, "Surely you've explained stranger things to me."

Dane smiled at that. It was the smile that was still not entirely human, but Billy didn't mind it. "Kraken magic, mate."

"All right." Billy gestured for Dane to keep talking, but Dane leaned down and kissed him instead, and the tip of the thinnest tentacle decided to also get in on the action, sliding between their mouths. The sensation was so odd that Billy couldn't help but laugh. He ran his hands over Dane's back, tracing the ever-diminishing line of chromatophores that swirled over Dane's spine. Most of the time it wasn't visible to the naked eye, but he could feel the tiny bumps raise a tiny bit higher under the sweep of his fingertips.

"What about the Kraken magic?" he said, after a minute passed and Dane stayed quiet. "Tell me."

"Ain't you dream it?" Dane asked. The two tentacles brushed over Billy's face again and he remembered all at once the dream he woke from: the underwater dark but not cold, because in the dream he was not himself. In the dream he was more than himself, he was several things, and all of those things had arms and tentacles. 

"Not _Mesonychoteuthis_ ," he said stupidly, and Dane grinned, very close. 

Billy traced the line of chromatophores again. "Well, are you explaining or what? I didn't take any ink earlier-" (they didn't have any at the moment) "-so I'm sure that was only a dream, not a vision."

"Dream, vision," Dane said, as though six of one equaled a half-dozen of the other. Billy poked him hard in the shoulder.

"Quit mucking about and tell me."

"We need to repay the Sea. And we will. With new life."

"You've lost me again," Billy said, even as he thought as fast as he could, as his mind swirled. "We can't… we're both blokes, for one, and neither one of us has got the right bits, for two, and -"

Dane put his human hand over Billy's mouth. "That don't matter to the sea, or to Kraken, or to magic."

"Well, I don't want to have to be stuck in the flat and pregnant with Colossal squid babies," Billy insisted, knowing even as the words left his mouth that they weren't even the strangest thing he'd ever said.

"Too late, also not Colossal, don't worry," Dane said kindly. He positively beamed. 

"Oh."

Dane kissed him again, and the weightless underwater feeling came again with it. It rolled up and curled against the backs of Billy's eyes. "Won't be long," Dane said, softly in his ear. "Drive to the coast when it's time, have a swim. Repayment will be complete."

Billy grumbled, but only for a moment. He wanted to say, _Haven't I done enough?_ , but the sea had paved the way to this Billy, had sheltered the kraken until it could end Vardy and burn time just enough give Dane and all the memories of Dane to to this Billy. This version of himself who'd never touched _Architeuthis_ at all, but who remembered how much it had hurt to see Dane die. So honestly, he would be happy to do what the sea asked of him. 

"What now?" he asked instead.

The squid arms brushed over Billy's thigh, and the tentacles wound across his belly. "For now, maybe a cuppa," Dane said, and the words were muffled against Billy's neck. He ran his hand over Dane's head again, the touch gentle. 

"I think I could miss the squid-bits of you, when they're gone."

"Think you just got spoiled having someone who could lift you about."

"You could do that already," Billy said, chuckling. He slid his very human foot along Dane's calf, and skimmed his fingertips over Dane's shoulders. "It will be nice when you can leave the flat, though."

"I could leave now. Wear a great coat, tuck my arm underneath it."

"I think the squid-part would be cold." 

Dane tipped his head back and forth, not really anything, then made an offended sort of noise. Billy laughed at that, then breathed in deep and felt his chest expand. He didn't feel any different than usual, still just the gentle buzzing under his skin he got whenever he and Dane laid like this. Curled together so close they were nearly one organism. Except now they were many more than one or two. 

"Sing the prayers again, for the eggs," he said. Whispered, almost. He nestled down even further into the soft mattress and kissed the parts of Dane's face that his mouth would reach.

"All right," Dane said agreeably against Billy's skin, and began to recite.


End file.
